A new reason to live

by Proxy4818

Upon investigating an anomaly Heero Yuy finds himself thrust into an entirely new world, left with no direction he must figure out where he's suppose to head going forward, does he simply live the life of a soldier or find a more meaningful purpose in living?

3. Unexpected bond and encounter with ZAFT

Okay so while it appears that many people are on board with this fanfic if the flow amd favorites and followers but I've been receiving surprising pushback when it comes to the main pairing of this story and admittedly fair points were made however the Heero X Lacus pairing is the main premise of this story and my reason for writing this at all to begin with, for now I'll just say this.

There may be reasons why this pairing may feel unrealistic to some of you but the general idea of custom ships is to make a scenario where whatever the pair is feel as believable and endearing as possible in spite of how they might otherwise be in canon. If it can be done with Ramius in Journey to a new battlefield as well as the sequel story to it or the characters from the Neptune series in another crossover of read (gundam/ hyperdimension Neptunia) it can certainly be done with Lacus.

As for how it will affect other characters' development. Contrary to what's been said in some reviews its actually not going effect Athrun's character development that much if at all, at most it'll just take a bit longer for it to come full circle and Kira he'll still develop as a person, there are other people aside from Lacus who can help him if he really needs it.

The only thing that might really be affected in Kira's case is what happens with the Freedom.

So again I'm open to suggestions for what I can do to develop the main pairing Heero and Lacus but any suggestions saying to change the main pairing or the entire prologue of this story will be DECLINED because the HeeroXLacus pairing is the main point of this story even being made to begin with.

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"You know it seems like when we manage to solve one problem another or maybe two new ones come along." Mu La Flaga said offhandedly. "After we solve our water supply problem we not only end with the pink haired princess of the Plants but also that other pilot who's essentially a wildcard."

Ramius could only let out a sigh. "Heero is here of his own accord, my only concern is his ability to follow through with his promise when we encounter ZAFT forces again."

"His machine looks up to the task, that rifle it has is nothing to scoff at, that much should be a given considering the sheer size of it along with it being a double barrel."

"We've yet to see how that mobile suit actually performs in battle."

"Fair enough the best we can hope for is that it at least relatively scales to the one prototype still in our possession."

"True but personally I think the bigger concern is actually with Lacus Clyne."

Mu shrugged. "You worried about what exactly we're supposed to do with her?"

"Yes, we can't exactly make a trip all the way to the Plants but if we take her with us to the lunar headquarters…"

"The ones in charge of the base would welcome her with open arms because of how valuable her identity makes her."

"And that's exactly what makes me feel uneasy."

"Are you having a moral crisis?" Mu inquired.

"At the very least I can say that I'm not exactly eager to drag Ms Clyne into this war, she's not a member of ZAFT so….."

"Lieutenant Ramius with all due respect I don't believe Lacus not being a soldier of ZAFT is relevant in this case." Natarle suddenly said. "Besides, it's a blatant contradiction to not involve her when you've already involved those kids from Heliopolis."

"I only did that because the circumstances demanded it, we had to do whatever we could to ensure we survived."

"And the same principle doesn't apply here? We may have gained more water from the debris belt but we still only have minimal fighting strength even with the Strike."

"We gained another mobile suit."

"We can't truly trust its pilot, besides we don't know how far that machine's performance goes and if we're attacked by the enemy there's a very high chance the enemy will use the stolen prototypes which surpass any weapon to date. Do you really believe that a mobile suit we know anything about is guaranteed to really make that much of a difference?"

As much as Ramius wanted to say yes she just couldn't, Natarle was right since they knew nothing about Wing Zero they really could not be sure how it even stacked up against a Ginn let alone one of the stolen prototypes. Essentially all everyone could do was hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.

"Having Lacus on the other hand provides us with any number of possibilities that we can be far more sure are going to work within our favor and that of the EA's as a whole."

Ramius internally grimaced, as much as she would have liked to refute that she just realistically couldn't and she knew very well the top brass would leap at the opportunity to use Lacus as a bargaining chip.

Before anyone could reflect further on the predicament concerning what to do with Lacus one of the officers suddenly spoke up.

"I'm receiving a transmission…..I think from the Koopman's unit."

XXXXX

On the bridge of the Valarient the captain was speaking to another individual who was a major member of the ZAFT supreme council who happened to be none other than Adrian Quinby over a video call.

The reason for the call was because the latter wanted to speak with the former about the crew's next set of instructions in the face of the incident caused by the warp experiment.

"Sir, are you sure this is acceptable?" The captain inquired.

"It can't be helped, while it has not yet been made public the entire memorial delegation which was heading to the ruins of Junius 7 has disappeared so the council wants a search carried out. The Vesalius has already been sent out and will soon be joined by two more vessels."

"But wouldn't that mean they're numbers are already bolstered, is there really a need for the Valarient to join as well?"

"Yes but make no mistake I am not telling you to overlook the unexpected mobile suit we've brought into our own world but as things currently stand we have no true idea of where it is currently located, it could still be wondering some part of the debris belt or it could simply be wandering the vastness of space heading essentially nowhere."

"We don't know that for sure."

"Of course not, those would just be the most convenient outcomes given the circumstances surrounding its being here. But as things currently stand its current whereabouts are unknown and we can't realistically search the entirety of outer space for it when we have no leads."

"Fair enough." The captain conceded, while they were personally worried about any potential damage the unknown mobile could cause if left to its own devices but he knew Adrean was ultimately right. "Still I'm not entirely sure what good searching for a civilian ship will do for us."

"In and of itself, none, however what comes after will at least allow you to assist with the war effort, once the search is carried out Ru La Cruset will be tasked with dealing with the EA's new warship and the one mobile suit that his forces failed to capture on Heliopolis."

"Fair enough, I can see why it's the most productive thing we can do for the moment."

"If that mobile suit surfaces again we'll have to decide what the best course of action is when the time comes Liam."

With that the radio link cut off before the captain now identified as Liam or their full name Liam Aaron turned to Oliver.

"How much time will it take for us to meet up with the Vesalius?"

"Just under an hour."

"Alright let's set a course."

XXXXX

"Hmmm, now this is an interesting turn of events." A man with shoulder length blonde hair wearing a white ZAFT commander uniform along with a mask over his eyes who went by the name Rau La Cruset as he, the captain of the ship and several pilots including one wearing a ZAFT red uniform with near shoulder length blue hair looked over a map displaying the various areas of outer space.

What the masked individual was referring turn was a small force of EA forces who had showed in the general sector of outer space where they currently were but what grasped his attention most when it came to this unit's a sudden appearance was the direction they were heading in.

"Is this unit really that relevant? Our primary target is the EA's new warship." Stated the captain.

"True, however if this advance force is out here then there has to be a reason."

"You believe that reason might be cause for us to deal with them?"

"Yes, especially if they're reason for their actions is to link up with the legged ship and resupply it."

"I can see why that could cause problems for us."

The commander smiled. "Which is precisely why we can't risk overlooking them."

The Bluenette gave Rua La Cruset an uncertain look. "Commander aren't we supposed to search for the ship the Lacus went to the Junius 7 on?"

"Of course Athrun but that doesn't mean we should overlook any and every enemy in front of us."

The ZAFT red pilot Athrun let out a grunt but accepted the answer.

"We'll be sure to find your fiance and bring her back to the Plants safely if she's alright."

The ZAFT red pilot Athrun Zala harbored more than than a few personal worries, the disappearance of Lacus' ship was just one of them, there was also the shocking discovery he had when he ran into his best friend Kira Yamamto during the attack on Heliopolis.

What was far worse was that Kira had not only ended up on the the Earth Alliance's new warship but on top of that he had now become the pilot of the one prototype still within the enemy's possession the Strike essentially becoming an enemy of ZAFT and Athrun himself.

The ZAFT red still wished that this was just a bad dream he could wake from and find that his friend wasn't fighting against his fellow Coordinators but reality wasn't that kind or convenient.

He could only hope that he could persuade Kira to come to his senses before it was too late otherwise… he really did not want to imagine that outcome, he had already lost his mother in the bloody valentine, he did not want Kira to follow.

'Kira you need to wake up and realize the Naturals are just using you.'

Rau La Cruset then turned his attention back to the Captain. "How long until the Valarient links up with us?"

"They should be able to meet up with us just in time to assist with the attack on the advance force."

"Good, it'll ensure that we'll be able to deal with them swiftly enough."

XXXXX

"The atmosphere on this ship seems to have become far more lively." Lacus mused.

"From what I hear it's due to receiving a transmission from an advance force sent out by the eighth fleet." Heero replied. "My guess is that the people on this ship are relieved that it'll ensure their safety until they get off this ship and make for Orb's homeland."

Since any maintenance he could on Wing Zero was already taken care of and he obtained all the information he could get from the Archangel's archives he had since then oddly found himself spending his spare time with Lacus.

A good part of him felt confused by this, it wasn't harmful by any stretch so long as he didn't reveal anything vital about himself (provided Lacus even believed him) but still normally he'd keep his distance from most strangers.

The last time he found himself acting in a way that was abnormal for himself was when he was unable to bring himself to dispose of Relena back during Operation Meteor.

Luckily she turned out to be someone he could genuinely trust and consider a friend, maybe the same could be said for Lacus.

"It's pleasing to know that they won't have to face any needless danger."

"True." The gundam pilot mused before the latter suddenly decided to change subjects.

"I'm truly hoping for the day this war will come to an end and no one will have to live in fear for their lives."

"It might be some time before that happens."

"Perhaps. I have to wonder what is we should truly be fighting against."

Heero pondered what the pinkette had said.

From what he had discovered about her through what limited info the Archives contained Lacus Clyne was not only the daughter of the Plant's current chairman who was actually quite something of a political speaker but also a famous pop idol who's music was famous in both the Plants and on Earth. Essentially a combination of both a political and idolized figure.

Back when he had initially came across the lifepod it really didn't occur to him that he had came across such an influential individual. When it came to her inquiry it might not have had any simple answer.

If one strived to simply wipe out literally every individual on the opposing side, odds were that by the end of whatever war was being fought at the time there'd be next to nothing left and likely no true sense of victory or accomplishment to be had. Essentially whoever survived by the end of that scenario would be left with less than they ever had at the start. "It might not be as simple as ensuring the downfall of one side or the other."

"I don't believe this war to be that simplistic either."

"Most wars aren't, odds are if either the Earth Alliance or ZAFT claims a complete victory that side will likely force too much of what they want creating a growing anger within the opposite faction who in turn will plot to retaliate via a new war."

"If it's not necessarily one side or the other we should be fighting, then who?"

"Likely anyone intent on perpetuating this until they see the complete victory of their respective side."

"I see, so you realize what I have."

And once more Lacus was proving to be far sharper then she had likely led people on the ship to believe when they initially saw her come out of the lifeboat. A part of Heero had to wonder if Lacus was going to try and involve herself more deeply with what's been going on, considering the level of notoriety she has gained combined her personal philosophy she might have the potential to be a major political figure that could help steer this world in a better direction not unlike what Relena had been doing in his original world especially in its most recent times. "As long as those individuals are pulling the strings this world may never know peace."

"All anyone can do is what is within their immediate power at the moment."

"Perhaps. I'd like to ask you what's your reason for fighting in this war?"

Heero paused, unsure of what type of answer to give, he couldn't just outright tell Lacus the truth since he would have to show some evidence to back up the claim, but even if she believed him he wasn't entirely sure what the songstress would even do with that information.

"To be honest I was caught in this war against my will and rather suddenly, so I'm really not entirely sure where I'm supposed to go from here."

That wasn't really a lie persay, Heero basically wound up in this other world unintentionally with no true idea of what he was supposed to due, this was no longer a simple reconnaissance mission like it had been when he was simply trying to find out more about that rift but he didn't really have much of a clear mission going forward aside from gathering as much intel as he was able in hopes of finding a way back to his world.

"So you're not entirely sure about your own purpose in life."

Heero has nearly taken completely by surprise by that deduction, while he had not really hinted at being lost when it came to what he was supposed to do with his life making what Lacus said sound far-fetched to an outsider, what she had said actually held a lot of truth.

The main contributing factor to him joining the preventers back in his world was that he was left without any true direction in his life. Since he spent most of his life being brought up as a soldier fighting on the battlefield was all he truly knew how to do, hell during the only real reprieve from it prior to him being selected as one of the five gundam pilots for operation meteor he simply wandered the colonies aimlessly.

But even joining the preventers only served as something of a distraction from uncertainty of what to do with himself in the long term scheme of things.

The other gundam pilots were doing much better in that regard. Duo had been making a far more peaceful life for himself with Hilde, Quatre had taken over his father's company, Trowa had been traveling with the circus. Wufei he couldn't be sure of, for all he knew Wufei might have been in the same boat as himself but handled it differently.

If Heero ever returned to his world would he be able to discover something more that didn't revolve around fighting? He wasn't sure, and if not would there be any future that was actually worthwhile for him?

Honestly he really didn't want to think about it. "I won't deny that I'm trying to figure that out."

"I won't pressure you into speaking on it any further if you don't wish to, I can tell that there's much that you are withholding but regardless I hope you can come to know that you can trust me."

Heero wasn't able to immediately think of an adequate response, the songstress had already proven herself a lot more observant than most would think multiple times over in the short time span since meeting her but it was almost starting to feel like it was impossible to truly hide anything from her.

"I have complicated circumstances surrounding my personal situation."

"I understand but still you can tell me if you ever feel up to it."

"...Thank you." It might have felt somewhat out of place to say that to someone for something like this, but with Lacus the perfect soldier couldn't help but feel some odd sense of gratitude.

XXXXX

Adrian Quinby was certainly a man of many talents, not only did he contribute a great deal to mobile suit designs but he was also a member of the ZAFT supreme council.

During the early years of his life he lived on E

earth and was able to shrug off much of the discrimination he faced fairly well, paying verbal lashouts and whispering little to no mind and being able to fight anyone who tried to resort to physical violence.

Eventually he married a Natural woman who had unfortunately passed away giving birth to their child whom Adrian gave everything to raise on his own.

Unfortunately six years later his child was murdered in a daycare center by a blue cosmos member. After that horrid incident Adrian nearly lost the will to live until he remembered something his wife said offhandedly.

"I hope that the day will come where this needless tragedies no longer take place so no one else has to lose loved ones to unnecessary circumstances."

With those words in mind Adrian decided he'd to make that dream a reality and to that end he migrated to the Plants and began his duel careers as a mobile suit designer and member of the ZAFT supreme council in hopes of shifting the world into a more peaceful direction via creating a balance of power between the Plants and Earth making so that both sides would have to sue for a peaceful coexistence with neither having any real guarantee of victory if both ever fought each other.

Unfortunately to the man's dismay this didn't workout the way he had hoped, his contribution helped ZAFT establish a military force capable of opposing the EA and solidify the Plants as an independent nation and during this time he had visited the earth and adopted Jacab but the Earth Alliance was determined to bring the Plants back under their control.

That ultimately led to the bloody valentine which was the trigger to kick this war into full swing. It was at this point Adrian began looking into the concept of a parallel world or the theory behind it and began trying to develop technology that could allow travel between them.

The goal was to allow those living in the Plants to find a home where the Earth Alliance could never reach them again, maybe an alternate earth that had no intelligent life that the Coordinators could inhabit.

However the project behind the concept saw no real progress no matter how much Adrian pushed for it, just when he was lose hope of it yielding anything the latest test it finally produced a result.

However it had done so in the worst way possible, a hostile mobile suit of all things wound up coming through the rift.

Personally Adrian was glad that the mobile suit had seemingly disappeared for the time being since that at least meant it wasn't causing any further damage to ZAFT forces.

Still a large part of the council member couldn't help but feel a sense of frustration well up, if a hostile mobile suit is what came through from the other side than that meant there were also humans there with a space faring militarized force capable of combating ZAFT and far better footing than the EA ever could.

That meant that worldly migration would never work since those who made the Plants their home would potentially be trading one enemy for another, one that was even more dangerous to boot.

The entire project was both a success and a failure at the same time though considering the circumstances around said projecting it wasn't inaccurate to say the latter outweighed the former.

Letting out a sigh Adrian knew that the mobile suit that his faction had brought here needed to be dealt with whener it surfaced again but also he was back to square one with ensuring an everlasting peace, at this rate he might honestly have to consider more drastic measures that many would approve of.

XXXXX

To say the young Coordinator pilot Kira Yamato was relieved might have honestly been a complete understatement.

Since the attack on Heliopolis had been forced to pilot a mobile suit and jump in the middle of a war he wanted nothing to due with.

What was worse was that his best friend Athrun Zala was amongst the invading ZAFT force. For Kira his friends actions didn't make any sense, Athrun had once said he hated the very idea of war and yet the next time the two friend met he was a ZAFT soldier who had attacked a Natural colony.

As a result Kira had been forced to fight his best friend which was something he truly dreaded to no end.

Then there were the close calls to his very life particularly when he was nearly captured and taken to a ZAFT ship and then nearly shot down and killed by the Duel.

Another factor that was really to taking a toll on his mental state was that he had also been called a traitor to his fellow Coordinators, while he might have wished he could refute that, the fact that he had on some level been fighting on the earth forces behalf and had even taken lives was undeniable.

On top of that there were those on this very ship who harbored anti Coordinator sentiments in spite of whatever protection Kira had provided for them since Heliopolis, a primary example being none other than the very girl of his dreams Flay Alster.

Granted when she had her outburst it was directed at Lacus and that Heero Yuy person, but he was a Coordinator himself, if Flay hated Coordinators just for being who they were then that meant she had to despise Kira himself.

Honestly he couldn't wait to get back to Earth and to the homeland of Orb and return to the peaceful life that he had once had before the attack on Heliopolis.

"So what are you up to kid." A voice suddenly said, startling him and causing him to lift the main monitor up to see Murdoch.

"I'm just running a diagnostic check on the Strike's systems though thinking about it now I guess there might not be a point now."

"Maintaining this machine is still your job until we reach the eighth fleet, we can't let our guard down until then."

"I'll be ready if there's another attack."

"Good to know, and hey you got one more ally to have your back now."

"Maybe…."

Murdoch raised an eyebrow. "Is there something up with them? I heard they agreed to fight with us."

"No it's just I can't help but wonder how strong they are."

"I'd imagine at least as strong as you though I'm curious about their mobile suit, it looks like your Strike and the other prototypes but at the same time something about it feels different and I'm not just talking about the lack of phase shift."

"Yeah I think he called it the Wing Zero." Kira had to admit even he harbored some level of curiosity when it came to the enigmatic mobile suit, back when it first showed up in the debris belt he was worried he was going to have to fight the machine so it left him with no shortage of shock and relief when Heero revealed he was only there to deliver the life pod and make that deal.

"Whatever happens you can always volunteer to stay on this ship as an official member." Murdoch said before heading off.

Kira could only grimace at that very thought, he had enough fighting for a lifetime, there was no way in hell he was ever going to continue piloting the Strike once the ship reached the eighth fleet.

XXXXX

"So we're fighting alongside the Vesalius." Archie mused as he and Jacob made their way to the hanger.

A few minutes ago the Valarient had linked up with the Vesalius where Rau La Cruset spoke with captain Liam and were informed that they were going to attack an advance force that he believed was heading out to link up with the EA's newest warship called the Archangel to resupply them.

Additionally there were supposed to be two other teams, the Laconi and Porto teams but both were behind schedule and as a result only the two ships present were able to intercept the advance unit.

Jacob shrugged "It can't be helped, as things stand now we have no inkling as to where that mysterious mobile suit went so we can't realistically look for it."

"I understand that it's just….."

Jacob merely glanced at Archie silently prompting him to continue.

"I really don't feel comfortable being under Rau La Cruset's command."

Jacob clicked his tongue, he had to admit he really couldn't bring himself to disagree with Archie's misgiving about this.

Rau La Cruset was someone no nobody could truly get a read on but at the same time he was one of ZAFT's best commanders in the field and a skilled pilot in his own right suffice to say no one could truly deny his value as a member of ZAFT.

"I doubt you're the only one who feels that way but as things stand now assisting him is the most productive thing we can do at the moment." A new feminine voice said causing both ZAFT reds to look ahead and spot a new figure wearing an identical uniform and long mint colored hair that came down to their mid back and matching eyes.

This newest individual was female pilot around their age named Evelyn Abigail, another ZAFT red who had joined after the death of her father during the Bloody Valentine, unlike many other members of ZAFT who were motivated by a newfound hatred of Naturals and desire for revenge she simply wanted to bring the string of losses to an end for good.

To that end she trained diligently as a pilot until she achieved her current rank and from there became a member of Adrian's personal faction believing that it posed the best chance of truly restoring peace within the cosmic Era.

Upon seeing who had shown up Archie scratched the back of his head. "Maybe but still something about that commander comes off as well...unhinged."

"Unhinged?" Evelyn repeated.

"I really don't know how to describe it, Rau La Cruset just doesn't have the feel of someone who truly has the Plants' best interest at heart."

"I can't outright deny that but again carrying this mission is the best thing any of us can do."

Archie let out a sigh. "I know."

As the pilots arrived at the hanger they glanced towards the mobile suit Jacob had previously piloted before Archie smirked. "You auto really thank the mechanics, contrary to what you thought they actually managed to get your machine fixed up just in the nick of time for our next sortie."

"I'll keep that in mind." Jacob replied though he had to admit he was actually relatively impressed, he had thought that his unit was going to be out of commission much longer or that he might have to get a new mobile suit altogether but it seems the mechanic team really pulled through for him.

The other two machines the hanger currently contained were a standard Ginn assigned to Archie as well as a customized navy blue Ginn Assault which had denser armor known as the "Assault Shroud" and replaced the heavy sword that most ZAFT mobile suits had for close quarters combat with a spear belonging to Evelyn.

The other arments on Evelyns mobile suit consited of two vulcans mounted on each shoulder, grenade launchers in the wrist and chest behind its armor plates, and missile launchers in the legs of the machine.

As Jacob went up the catwalk he went by the head mechanic and shot them a smile. "Thank you for all your work."

"Don't mention it, we're counting on you to take down that mysterious mobile and make the pilot pay for what they did to the others."

"I'll definitely shoot that machine down for sure." He replied before entering the cockpit of his CGUE. As he began starting up the mobile suit's systems he suddenly found himself being hailed by Evelyn.

"What is it?"

"I just wanted to tell you that what happened to the others wasn't your fault, no one could have predicted that a hostile mobile suit of all things would come through."

"I know, but even so I feel that I at least owe it to them to take that machine down."

"Just remember you're not alone, both me and Archie are here with you along with everyone on this ship."

"Don't worry I will." Jacob replied before walking his machine over to the catapult when the ships' intercom came on.

"All personnel be advised, the enemy's new warship is also in this sector of space, be ready for whatever reaction they might have once we begin engaging the advance force."

Jacob didn't give any visible reaction to that news, from the reports he had seen so far it seemed the Archangel was a surprisingly well armed ship, Rau La Cruest's team had been to bring it down even using the four stolen prototypes they had acquired from Heliopolis.

That told Jacob and weekly everyone else on board the Valarient that the enemy war ship was nothing if not formidable. Odds were the ship would either use the opportunity to flee the sector and continue towards the eighth fleet or try to assist the advance unit after they came under attack.

Whatever the ship did the crew of the Valarient would just have to adapt to the situation on the spot.

Personally Jacob preferred if the Archangel came to assist since it meant the Valarient would be able to kill two birds with one stone, granted it would make the mission more difficult the gains were worth the risk.

XXXXX

"Captain I'm picking up three silhouettes, the Law, Montgomery, and Bernard!" An officer on the bridge of the Archangel exclaimed.

Upon hearing this Ramius smiled. "Alright, let's set a course to meet up with them."

"On it!" Nuemann exclaimed as he set about altering the Archangel's current course.

The atmosphere on the bridge was the by far brightest it had ever been since the ships' forced maiden voyage upon the attack on Heliopolis.

Likely all of the crew and civilians alike were really looking forward to meeting up with the advance unit, since it meant they would longer have to fear an attack from ZAFT.

After having to spend what felt like forever walking on eggshells, the news of the advance unit truly felt like a light at the end of a tunnel everyone yearned to be out of.

"It'll be nice seeing Allster again." A teenage boy with orange tinted glasses by the name of Sai Argyle mused.

"You're not the only one who feels that way, Flay was busy trying to make sure she looked her absolute best earlier for when she got to see her father." Mirriallia replied.

Sai could help but let out a chuckle. "That's not surprising both Flay and her father practically dote on each other."

"Considering the transmission we got from the Montgomery earlier, that sounds like something they'd do."

Another teen boy with black hair known as Kuzzy buskirk shrugged. "Personally I really just want to get to the homeland and be away from this war."

"Hopefully after we meet up with the eighth fleet we'll be home free."

Ramius couldn't blame the kids from Heliopolis for wanting to simply return to Orb's homeland, they weren't truly soldiers of the EA and the only reason they wound up getting involved at all is because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnessed the classified G weapon project in the form of the Strike.

As a result Ramius was forced to restrain all of them and bring them aboard the Archangel so that their situation could be handled by the proper authorities.

Of course this meant bringing the predicament to the attention of the Admiral of the eighth fleet, hopefully after that she could simply let them all head to Orb's homeland.

The entire mood on the ship soon shifted when one of the officers noticed the radar being jammed. "Captain N jammers are interfering with this entire sector!"

Ramius gave the officer a look of near pure disbelief, it wasn't that she had let her guard down but for the enemy to attack now of all times couldn't possibly be worse.

Just when they were about to be out of the string of uncertain situations ZAFT forces have to show up now.

"Do we know the enemy's current location from us?"

"No, they're not actually here."

"What?!"

XXXXX

Once the vesalius and Valarient came upon the advance squad the enemy was relatively slow to respond but managed to send out their mobile armors.

Of course in turn both ZAFT ships launched all their mobile suits which essentially consisted of five Ginns (including Evelyn's custom assault unit.) One CGUE, and one of the prototypes that fellow ZAFT forces captured from Heliopolis.

The machine was mainly red with a black upper chest on its left and right sides of its hatch and a plain silver face plate with green eye sensors giving the machine a somewhat humanoid face not unlike that of the mysterious mobile suit Jacob had faced the other day.

Its load out consisted of a beam rifle and shield as well as ciws with the side of its head and according to the data on it it also had fore beam sabers in each limb, and a scylla cannon when it changes forms.

Overall the mobile suit had a performance that might be considered unprecedented by most of the world's standards, but Jacob wasn't impressed as of the moment, the red unit known as the Aegis might have possessed a level of technology that helped it surpass the performance of any Ginn or CGUE but the question on Jacob's mind was how the prototype along with the other three captured units would fair against the mobile suit that had nearly killed Jacob himself.

As the first mobile armor approached shooting its linear gun Jacob merely strafed out of its line of fire and let the enemy fly by before aiming his rifle behind himself and shooting the pilot down as if it was mere afterthought and following up via downing another with his shield vulcan.

Meanwhile Archie found himself being chased by a single mobile armor pilot who was trying to get a lock on him before swinging his mobile suit in the other direction straight towards the pursuing machine whilst pulling out his heavy sword and holding it right in the EA pilot's flight path.

The unfortunate pilot wasn't able to react in time and was not able react in time and the mobile armor collided with the blade of Archie's weapon which resulted in the former being rend in two and its' pilot being sent to oblivion before Archie turned his attention to the next target and took off after them all the while switching back to his rifle.

Evelyn quickly shot down two mobile armors nearly simultaneously with her shoulder guns before flying towards the command ship wanting to end this skirmish as soon as possible.

The enemy unit consisted of three ships, two of which were Drake class and the final one was a Nelson class. Considering the former's purpose was generally to act as support for higher class ships it was clear which vessel the enemy commander was on.

Using the grenade launchers in the wrists of her mobile suit Evelyn quickly took out all the starboard side anti air guns on the Nelson class ship before making a beeline for the bridge with her spear in hand intended to impale the bridge of the ship and hopefully force the rest of the enemy to surrender before they were all needlessly slaughtered.

Much to her surprise and dismay she found her effort being interrupted when she was suddenly shot from behind from two different directions.

Luckily thanks to the assault shroud armor on her Ginn Assault she hadn't suffered any considerable damage. Turning around she saw who was the culprit of that rear attack, she had expected to see two mobius units but to her surprise it was a singular unit, one of the specialized gun barrel armors, a Mobius Zero if she recalled correctly.

She remembered hearing of the hawk of Endymion flying one of these units but she also heard his was orange and the one currently opposing her was white.

Another thing that surprised Evelyn was when whomever the pilot of the unit was had suddenly began hailing her. While she was not the least bit interested in whatever this individual had to say she was unfortunately forced to listen to this person's rant.

"Nice try you fucking space monster, you vermin are way to cocky for your own good."

Evelyn could only sigh in annoyance as she readied herself to engage this individual without giving any reply.

XXXXX

"You want us to flee the sector?!" Ramius asked in near complete disbelief.

After figuring out the ZAFT was somewhere within the sector it became apparent that they weren't attacking the Archangel this time leaving Ramius and the others confused.

The crew of the archangel was left unsure of what they're next course of action should be at least until the captain of the advance unit hailed them and informed them to leave the sector and continue towards the eighth fleet. "Yes, making sure you get the Strike to the eighth fleet takes precedence in this situation."

"But sir what about you?"

"We'll buy you as much time as we can but you need to make the most of it."

With that the radio link cut off. Leaving everyone on the bridge to let the situation sink in.

Just when it felt as like the crew had been met with a source of salvation in the form of the advance it was now being ripped away from the in a way that might have been the cruelest one possible.

The reason that ZAFT wasn't attacking the Archangel was because they had shifted their attention to the advance unit instead.

Many on the bridge were wondering why things had taken this turn, others tried to go into a sense of denial.

"So what's the plan?" Mu La Flaga suddenly asked Ramius. "Are we really going to leave them to their fate?"

Natarle glanced at Ramius with a stern look. "It was Koopman's order, plus if we don't vacate the sector we may be caught in the attack."

Everyone else just waited anxiously for the acting captain to give her reply.

Ramius had to really fight against the sense of frustration and dread upon learning of this situation. A part of her blamed herself for this development, being so overjoyed at the thought of linking up with the advance unit it didn't even occur to her that the enemy would make a move now or that they would set their sights on the advance fleet.

Perhaps she could have warned Koopmen of the possibility? No, that hypothetical couldn't even come to fruition since again it did not occur to Ramius for even the briefest of moments that ZAFT would take any action now of all times, even if she had actually given some forewarning of this it wouldn't shift the tide.

The advance unit was still facing mobile suits which needed to be outnumbered more than five to one just for a shot a victory to even exist in any given skirmish and that was assuming that they were only facing Ginns. If any of the four stolen prototypes were involved…..even if just one of them then any chance for survival was completely erased.

The only thing that could truly stand against the G weapons was another G weapon, in other words the only mobile suit still remaining in the crew's possession, the Strike.

The gap in battle strength between the two sides was the entire reason why this war never went in the Earth Alliance's favor like everyone assumed in the beginning. They had suffered far more defeats than they had victories and that was just when it came to outer space.

On the earth itself ZAFT had actually launched a counter invasion, managing to capture the mass drivers located at Gibraltar, Kaohsiung, and Carpentaria.

With the war shifting this far out of the EA's favor Admiral Halberton decided to launch the G weapon project in hopes of leveling the playing field but ZAFT had all but dashed that plan making it all the more vital that the Archangel's crew managed to safeguard the Strike.

Still could Ramius and the others simply leave Koopman and those with the advance unit to die?

"Captain!" Natarle exclaimed.

Ramius came to a decision. "Even if we decided to flee the sector there's no real guarantee we'd actually get away."

Everyone on the bridge save for Natarle smiled upon hearing that as Ramius announced her decision. "All hands to level one battle stations. We're heading to assist the advance unit!"

With that alarms throughout the ship began blaring.

XXXXX

Hearing the alarms going off and the intercom subsequently announcing that the ship was going to be put on level one battle stations, Heero immediately began heading to the hangar of the Archangel.

Once he arrived he caught sight of Kira entering the Strike and Mu La Flaga manning the mobile armor unit on board known as the Mobius Zero.

A part of the gundam pilot considered the reason for ZAFT's current actions, all things considered the most pragmatic course of action on ZAFT's part would have been to launch an assault on the Archangel itself but instead they choose to turn their guns on the advance unit coming to meet up with the Archangel.

On paper that idea seemed subpar but if one considered all the aspects (instead of just every obvious con) involved they might realize that the success of the advance units annihilation actually could yield a few advantages for the enemy.

For one if they suspected that the Archangel's crew was hurting for supplies (which they actually were, the trip to the debris belt only solved the predicament with the water supply) they'd likely be able to deduce that one of the goals behind the advance unit was to resupply the ship.

With that knowledge in mind the enemy would be well aware that the destruction of )).

the advance unit would ensure that the Archangel would be denied much needed supplies and that was all. On top of being robbed of essential items the Archangel would remain isolated.

Perhaps that was what the commander of the enemy force was aiming for. If so then Heero had to wonder if they were considering the possibility that the Archangel's crew could have taken advantage of the entire move in order to get a head start on their pursuers and decided that risk was worth the gains or if they had overlooked it.

Either way their plan might just pay off in spades depending on how well the advance unit could hold out before the Archangel arrived on the scene.

As Heero entered Wing Zero's cockpit he was hailed by Mu La Flaga over the radio. "What is it?" He inquired indifferently.

"Nothing much, I'm sure you're fully aware of the situation we're currently facing right?"

"Yeah, we're going to assist the advance unit sent to link up with this ship with repelling the attack that ZAFT forces launched."

"Good I can get straight to the point and remind you that we agreed to let you stay on the Archangel with near complete autonomy so you need to keep your part of the deal."

"Roger that." Heero replied before the link was cut and he was contacted by Mirriallia.

"Heero please load your mobile suit onto the catapult."

"Right." Heero complied with the request. In reality he really didn't need the ship's catapult to launch, he could easily do so relying on Wing Zero's thrust power alone but he wished to hide as much of the extent of Wing Zero's abilities from the crew as much as he could.

The less they knew about his mobile suit the better, they were already curious about his machine and he didn't want to draw any more attention to it than he already was about to during the upcoming fight. Plus it allowed him him to save fuel that had have otherwise been expended just to exit the ship at an adequate speed

As the hatch to the hanger opened Heero looked out and saw the battle was not going in the advance units favor.

"Launching." With that the Wing Zero was flung forward.

XXXXX

Kira Yamato felt anxious, more so than usual with this particular battle, just a little while ago he was looking forward to the idea of not having to involve himself with any further with this war and now this comes up.

Would he have to fight the other gundams? Would he have to fight Athrun? Who would he be forced to kill? These questions filled the young Coordinator with no shortage of dread.

What was worse about this entire thing was that George Allster was with the advance unit, this fact actually caused no shortage of worry for his daughter Flay who immediately went to Kira.

Flashback

Kira was walking down one of the halls of the Archangel before the sirens suddenly began going off startling him.

'What's going on? Don't tell me!'

Unfortunately for the young teen from Heliopolis his worst fears were immediately realized as the intercom system came on.

"Attention all personnel, the advance unit has come under attack by the enemy, we're headed to their location to assist them."

Wait, it was the advance unit that was under attack? But why? What reason could ZAFT have to go after them?

"Kira yamato, Heero Yuy head to the hanger and get ready to launch."

Kira grimaced at that order over the intercom as he began heading to the hanger.

Why did this have to happen, how far was ZAFT going to go just to destroy one ship? Why couldn't everyone just leave Kira and his friends alone and let them live in peace? Why was the fact that he and the others didn't want any part of this war SO HARD FOR ZAFT AND THE EARTH FORCES TO UNDERSTAND?!

Before his thoughts could go any further a familiar voice suddenly called to him from behind.

Turning around Kira and saw Flay of all people coming his way. "Oh Flay, what is it?"

"Is it true? Is my papa's ship really under attack?"

Kira was unsure of what to say given the circumstances surrounding this, the sheer amount of fear in Flay's eyes was all too apparent. He was almost tempted to lie but he knew that either Flay would very easily see right through or someone else would give her the truth afterwards.

"Don't worry we're on our way to help them now."

Flay grabbed ahold of Kira and stared at him with eyes full of desperation. "I don't want to lose papa, please!"

"It'll be okay, I promise we'll save him." Kira said more on impulse than anything else. In reality he wasn't really sure of how much he could actually do.

He might have survived the battles he's been put through thus far and shot down his share of enemies but honestly a lot of mine as well have been sheer luck.

Actually that was probably accurate, when of the reasons he was even able to stand up to a Ginn was because of the sheer power the Strike possessed, it's armor all but rendered any weapon ZAFT could field useless and the weapons the Strike possessed went beyond anything either side had aside from the other four gundams.

And when it came to those other machines Kira was nearly captured and killed by them at one point and barely held them off at other ones. Honestly he feared the day that said luck would run out which was another reason he wanted to end his involvement in this war.

But still he didn't want to see Flay reduced to tears or with this overwhelming sense of fear hanging over her.

As such he made a promise that he knew there was a very real chance he'd never be able to keep.

End flashback

As Kira loaded his mobile suit onto the catapult and it was equipped with the Ail pack giving the Strike a general load out with extra mobility he let out a sigh before facing forward.

"Kira Yamato, Strike launching."

With that the Strike was flung forward by the catapult.

XXXXX

As Jacob slashed a mobius unit in two before taking aim at one of the missile silos of one of the Drake class ships and shooting the missiles while they were still in the silo destroying that part of the armament.

Not wanting to let on his assault Jacob quickly sprayed the side of the ship with bullets before being forced to quickly down another mobile armor with his shield vulcan.

Honestly he was slightly annoyed with the brief distraction, granted it was one he was able to deal with in the span of mere seconds, it was one he didn't need at the moment.

Wanting to finish the job of downing the drake class ship Jacob quickly took aim at the bridge and fired, destroying it and taking the ship out of the fight in its entirety.

One ship down, two to go. Turning to the other drake class ship Jacob saw that the Aegis' pilot had taken out both of its port side silos and was in the process of disabling its thrusters.

Jacob then glanced towards the Nelson class ship which had also suffered considerable damage since the start of the fight.

He also noticed Evelyn's Ginn Assault locked in combat with a single specialized gun barrel unit type mobile armor.

It seemed the enemy it questioned was holding fairly well utilizing their machine effectively but it wouldn't grant them any victory, just make for a prolonged fight between the two opponents.

Using one of his secondary cams he spotted Archie helping some of the other Ginn pilots mop up any mobile armors still in the fight.

Before Jacob could decide where he could be the most effective one of the Ginn pilots started hailing everyone on ZAFT's side over the radio.

"Commander, more enemies just showed up, I think its the earth forces Stri- WAIT THAT ISN'T THE STIKE!"

Jacob felt his entire body tense up upon hearing that. 'There's no way!' He thought whilst continuing to listen to the Ginn pilot over the com.

"The enemy has another -aaaaagggghhhhh."

Before Jacob could fully register what he had heard he saw the pilot's IFF signal disappear quickly followed by two others.

"What 3 Ginns? In less than a full minute?"

Turning to the source of the Ginn pilots' demise Jacob saw what he feared. The mysterious mobile suit with its rifle attached to its shield hand and an emerald colored beam saber in the opposite hand.

'Dammit not here!' Jacob thought.

While he wanted to confront this otherworldly advisory relatively quickly this was one of the last places he wanted to do it and it was in the worst way possible.

Not only did the mobile suit show up again and catch him and the others off guard. But on top of that it had already taken another trio of pilots.

With it was the earth forces Strike mobile suit along with another gunbarrel mobile armor and not far behind was the very ship they were on a mission to hunt down and destroy.

This combined presence could only mean one thing, that the mysterious suit was not only hostile as far as anyone within ZAFT was concerned but also now fighting on the side of the enemy.

Seeing the very sight of this development made it clear that the situation revolving around the unknown mobile suit had taken the absolute last turn that anyone who was aware of it.

This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't, it had been less than a week since the Mobile suit came through the rift to the Cosmic Era, so how could the pilot have already established contact with the earth forces and became their ally? Surely it would take more time than that to establish any form of trust between the pilot and the EA officers.

Unfortunately things would only get worse as the mysterious set its sights and its next target which turned out to be none other than Archie.

Jacob felt a sense of absolute panic set as the mysterious mobile suit took aim at his best friend with its double barrel rifle and let a thick amber colored beam loose right towards Archie's Ginn.

He didn't know if it was because Archie noticed the incoming attack and tried to react or just sheer luck but the ZAFT red Ginn pilot somehow managed to climb just enough to safeguard the upper half of his machine though everything from the pelvic region downwards was completely disintegrated.

Whether it was consciousnessly or just an act of adrenalin was unclear to him but upon seeing Archie's mobile suit disabled Jacob pushed his thrusters to their maximum and made a beeline towards the unknown mobile suit.

The situation surrounding it might have quickly gone awry in the worst way possible but even so he wasn't going to allow himself to lose everyone here!

XXXXX

After sortieing from the Archangel Heero immediately caught sight of the battlefield between the advance unit and ZAFT forces.

And as he suspected the fight was not going in the EA's favor at all, one of Drake class ships had been downed by a CGUE and the other two vessels were not faring well in the least.

The remaining Drake class ship was being picked apart by the Aegis, it was only a matter of time before the Aegis delivered the finishing blow and destroyed the vessel altogether.

The Nelson was facing a similar situation with a good number of its anti air guns destroyed, likely by the blue mobile suit that from the looks of it might have been a specialized Ginn assault. The one factor that made the Nelson class vessal's situation somewhat favorable was that the Ginn assault was now preoccupied fighting a white Mobius Zero unit.

Any remaining mobile armors that had yet to be shot down were being wiped out left, right, and center by the Ginns.

Odds were the advance unit was already done for even with the Archangel coming to assist and the best they might be able to hope for is to save some stray allied soldiers.

Taking aim at one of the Ginn that seemed to have taken notice of him Heero quickly fired off an amber colored beam which soared through space before engulfing and destroying the ZAFT mobile suit.

Another Ginn made a beeline towards Wing Zero firing off their rifle only for Heero to evade their line of fire before spraying them with his shoulder guns ending the pilot.

A third Ginn pulled out its heavy sword and raced towards the Wing Zero as the pilot roared over an open channel in a rage. "YOU BASTARD!"

Rather then reply Heero attached his buster rifle to the shield hand freeing up the other hand which he used to to produce a familiar emerald colored beam saber before flying after the approaching Ginn

As the two opponents came within each other's reach the Ginn swung their weapon horizontally whilst Heero swung his weapon vertically.

Heero's blade cut through his opponents before he cut through the Ginn itself and shifted his attention to the next Ginn which was prioritized with off any mobile armors it could, the last one aside from the Ginn assault.

Once all the Ginns were gone it would make things easier on whatever was left of the mobile armor pilots, with that in mind Heero took aim at the latest target and fired.

It was hard to tell if it was sheer luck or by the genuine reflexes of the pilot themself but by some off chance the Ginn managed to climb just enough to avoid complete destruction but the trade off was that it still lost its entire lower half from the pelvic region downward.

As he cockpit alarm blared to alert him to another incoming hostile before he turned to see the CGUE fired its rifle prompting Heero to dodge the onslaught.

Heero quickly returned fire with his shoulder guns only for the CGUE to weave out of the path of the oncoming enemy fire and follow up releasing a new spray of bullets from the rifle aimed at Heero's buster rifle.

Luckily since the gun was now attached to the shield it had an extra layer of protection from the shield itself which Heero used to block the bullets however he was highly alarmed.

As He tried to return fire with his shoulder guns the CGUE strafed to the side to evade the attack and making a beeline for Wing Zero with its sword pointed out in front of it, the perfect soldier almost ended up believing that the enemy pilot was merely trying to impale him but realized that they had a more specific target in the form of one of his shoulder guns.

Acting quickly Heero lowered his altitude just enough to nullify what the enemy was attempting but he wasn't done, swing his beam saber overhead vertically Heero managed to essentially flipping the script on armament destruction as he cut straight through the CGUE'S blade rending it in two halves as the ZAFT mobile suit flew overhead.

With their sword now rendered useless the enemy pilot rather than simply discarding the broken armament chose to hurl it at Wing Zero prompting Heero to knock it aside via a swipe of his shield. 'This pilot is aiming to destroy my armaments and they're reacting to my offensive in a way that suggests experience fighting against me.'

Could this pilot possibly be the very same one he failed to shoot down when he first came to this world? Odds were fairly high, in fact all but guaranteed, the only uncertainty was that Heero did know the identity of the one that got away or the pilot he was fighting now, whether they were truly one in the same was also impossible to deduce with what limited information he currently had.

Before he could contemplate this any further he was forced to dodge a small number of emerald colored beams before turning on the direction the shots came from and spotting the Aegis heading his way.

XXXXX

Kira found himself unsure of where to go first; there were just two many enemies that he didn't know where to start.

It didn't help that from what he could see one of the earth ships was already downed making him all the more anxious as he recalled the promise he made to Flay.

Luckily Heero made the first move for him and immediately shot one of the Ginns from an impressive distance before offing the other enemy mobile suits one by one with such swiftness it nearly left the young Coordinator pilot both awestruck and dumbfounded until Mu La Flaga who had launched a bit after the two mobile suit pilots chastised Kira over the radio.

"Kid this isn't the time to hesitate, we need to move fast if we're going to have any shot at saving any of the remaining allies under Koopman!"

"Right!"

"That Heero kid seems to have most of the mobile suits preoccupied, I'm gonna try and disable both enemy ships, I want you to defend the Montgomery."

"Got it." If Kira recalled correctly the Montgomery was the lead ship of the eighth fleet's advance unit meaning it was the Nelson class ship.

Heading over in its direction Kira managed to catch sight of Athrun switching the Aegis over to its mobile armor form and using its scylla cannon to shoot straight at the hull of the other Drake class vessel and destroying the ship outright.

The sight of that made Kira worry about what would happen if Authrun decided to use that cannon of the last ship which George Allster was on, there was no way it would survive.

Suddenly Athrun broke into a beeline towards a different part of the battlefield briefly leading the teen Coordinator to think Athrun was going to attack him but to his surprise Athrun's focus turned out to be set on Heero.

Initially Kira might have been worried that Heero would be a sitting duck if he had to face any of the stolen gundams from Heliopolis but after seeing how quickly he disposed of Ginns and disabled a fourth he realized that this enigmatic pilot was stronger than him or anyone on the Archangel could have anticipated.

Suffice to say he and the others would really have to reevaluate their expectations of the young man known as Heero Yuy.

Personally for Kira he was no longer sure who would come out on top in the clash between Athrun and Heero that was about to transpire. He really had no desire to see either one of them lose their life but there was nothing he could do about it regardless of whatever happened.

For right now all Kira could truly do was focus on the mission he was just given by Mu and subsequently the promise to the girl he loved and save her father.

As he approached the Montgomery he caught sight of two units fighting just above the ship's main hull. One was a specialized gunbarrel unit just like Mu's mobile armor with the only difference in appearance being that its main color was white rather than orange.

Its opponent was a ZAFT mobile suit that looked a lot like a Ginn but with densor armor giving it a bulkier appearance. According to the Strike's data banks it was known as a Ginn Assault.

Whatever the case Kira needed to defeat them in order to save Flay's father as well as the ship. Taking aim with his beam rifle he fired a single beam at the Ginn Assault which dodge the attack.

Not one to take the attempt at a sneak attack lying down the Ginn Assault to its attention towards Kira and fired upon himself with its shoulder gatling guns and fired upon Kira. Fortunately thanks to his phase shift armor no real damage from any of the bullets sent his way but the still rattled the entire machine causing the young teen from Orb to flinch.

All the while the white Mobius Zero pilot split their machine apart as the gunbarrels at the back of the mobile armor split apart from its main body and fired at the ginn assault from multiple angles.

Much to Kira's surprise he saw the pilot of the Ginn Assault expertly dodging every shot before closing in on one of the gun barrels and stabbing it with its spear.

"Dammit!" A voice screamed in anger over the radio that Kira could only guess belonged to the white mobile armor pilot.

Ignoring this Kira tried to take another shot at the Ginn Assault only for it to evade his whilst releasing a single missile from its leg towards forcing Kira to block the projectile.

The mobile suit armor pilot reassembled their unit and attempted to attack the Ginn Assault with their main linear gun, their effort was ultimately in vain when the Ginn Assault evaded their attack and closed in with its spear ready to impale the mobile armor.

The EA pilot veered to the side avoiding oblivion albeit at the cost of one of their side gun barrels which the Ginn Assault managed to stab and destroy.

This seemed to enrage the EA pilot even further. "You monsters from space act like you're so high and mighty, but you'll all be dragged down to hell where you and your kind belong!"

Kira cringed hearing the anti Coordinator sentiments from the mobile armor pilot he was trying to assist and even remembered the disgust Flay had shown toward Lacus and Heero for being fellow Coordinators.(at least Kira thought Heero was a Coordinator, he was piloting a mobile suit afterall) but shook it off and fired upon the Ginn Assault with his beam rifle once more.

The same result of the Ginn Assault evading his attack followed before countering with another missile from its leg.

Rather than blocking the projectile Kira chose to shoot it down with his ciws before the Ginn Assault rapidly made a beeline for him launching a kick towards the Strike's midbody.

Kira somehow managed to put up his shield just in time to avoid taking the full brunt of the kick and being thrown backwards, unfortunately for the young teen pilot the enemy pilot of the Ginn Assault seemed to be one step ahead of him and angled their spear before thrusting it straight into the side of his beam rifle forcing him to let go of it before the weapon exploded.

The enemy pilot proceeded to practically kick off his shield before flying towards the white mobile armor which was headed their way as its two remaining gun barrels detached from its body.

"Diiiieeee!" The mobile armor pilot roared as they fired off their remaining gun barrels.

The Ginn Assault merely weaved through the gun fire whilst sending out another singler missile towards the farthest gun barrel whilst they closed in on the closest home with their spear. The moment they were within range the ZAFT pilot ran the gunbarrel through whilst their missile obliterated the other one leaving the white Mobius Zero without any of its specialized firepower.

"Noooooo!" The EA pilot screamed in a mixture of rage and denial of what was happening.

As the Ginn Assault turned toward the main body of the mobile armor likely intent on finishing them off, Kira acted quickly taking off after the ZAFT mobile suit firing his ciws and simultaneously drawing one of his beam sabers.

The Ginn Assault, upon avoiding any bullets sent its way, the mobile suit turned its attention back to Kira before flying towards him with its spear in hand.

A part of Kira had to wonder if this pilot was unaware of what the Strike could do or if they were just downright crazy. The tech level of their weapons was clear as day and night, kira's sword was a beam type whilst his opponent's was solid meaning that Kira's weapon naturally cut through theirs. 'Doesn't matter, I just got to beat them.'

As Kira sung his beam saber expecting the Ginn Assault to try an parry his attack but to his surprise they swing the poll of their spear into the forearm of the Strike throwing his attack off completely before sending a kick into the torso of the Strike sending it careening right into the hull of the Montgomery before the Ginn Assault launched a number of missiles at him forcing him to block them to the best of his ability with his shield.

XXXXX

To say Evelyn was annoyed with this entire debacle might have been an understatement. She had simply wanted to bring an end to this skirmish as quickly as possible while minimizing the loss of life by earning whoever was still alive amongst the enemy number a chance to surrender.

But that went to hell in handbasket rather fast when a specialized gunbarrel type mobile armor piloted by a Blue Cosmos advocate had to interrupt her efforts.

The EA pilot wasn't really skilled enough to pose a threat per say so much as they were just a persistent annoyance.

Evelyn had hoped to get rid of them quickly enough and continue disposing of the command ship but her enemy had somehow managed to stay in the fight long enough for the EA's newest ship to show up on the scene.

Of course that meant Valarient's crew would now have to deal with the one Prototype still in the earth force's possession, the Strike. It'd likely be a bit tedious but still achievable, Zaft still held the advantage with multiple Ginns including her own, Jacob's CGUE, and one of the other prototypes, the Aegis.

Unfortunately that assessment was thrown completely out of the window when the Archangel unveiled a surprise that likely no one on board the Valarient had particularly welcomed, the unknown mobile suit from the other world had shown up with the Archangel.

It almost felt like a blur, one moment the unknown mobile suit had shown up and the next all the Ginn pilots from the Vesalius were dead and Archie had lost the entire lower half of his machine.

Jacob immediately went to intercept the other worlder and received help for the Aegis pilot, hopefully turning the tide. Evelyn might have jumped into that fray herself but she was still preoccupied with that white gunbarrel unit and the hindrances only increased when the Strike decided to jump into the fight.

Even though it became a two on one fight the opposition Evelyn faced was never truly able to gain the upperhand since one opponent was only a moderately skilled pilot who didn't have the capacity to utilize their mobile armor to its fullest potential and the other had a lot of room to grow as a pilot to say the least assuming they lived long enough to gain the required experience and implied it correctly.

Deciding to change tactics upon the Stirke's arrival Evelyn began gradually tearing the white mobile armor apart piece by piece whilst holding off any assault the Strike made and rending its beam rifle in the process.

Within a fairly short timespan she had managed to nearly completely disarm the white specialized mobile armor and ready to deal the finishing blow and finish the Blue Cosmos sympathizer but the Strike decided to impede her once more.

Luckily when the Strike and her engaged in close combat the enemy pilot assumed that she was going to try and inflict damage to the general body of their machine and moved to block or parry the blow which made it easy for her to surprise them when she maneuvered her weapon to swing the body of her spear into the Strike forearm throwing the entire blow of its path before following up with a kick the sent the Strike crashing on its back into the hull of the Nelson class ship.

Speaking of which the bridge was still intact this was her chance to finish the ship off now that the original impediment was out of the way and the newest one was flat on its back, if there was a time to act it was now.

Gunning her thrusters Evelyn flew just over the Strike before opening her chest armor and launching all the grenades stored their into the bridge of the Nelson class ship taking the last earth vessel of the advance unit out of the fight before the cockpit alarms warned her of an incoming attack which she evaded before turning in its direction.

'You have gotta be kidding me.'

Flying towards firing its linear gun was the white mobile armor with its pilot screaming in rage over the radio.

Honestly Evelyn was really starting to pity this idiot. If they had any common sense they would have just stayed down until the battle was decided or surrendered they would have lived to see another day.

But now they've sealed their own fate, well it wasn't like Evelyn cared for any sympathizer of Blue Cosmos or even their members to begin with.

Gunning it for the oncoming mobile suit Evelyn thrusted her spear forward intent on ending the EA pilot for good but somehow the pilot managed to alter the course of their machine just enough that she only managed to take out their linear gun and tear into the bottom of their main machine.

As a result the white Mobius Zero was left completely defenseless and inoperable with a considerable tear in the bottom of its main body but otherwise still intact with the Pilot still alive within its cockpit.

Turning her attention back towards the Strike she saw the mobile suit making a beeline for her with its beam saber in hand.

Evelyn could only sigh, even though she hadn't even spoken with the pilot she realized through what little exchange of guns and beam they had that this pilot was being driven by a sense of desperation.

What she wasn't able to tell was weather it was from some desire to survive this or accomplish something else but either way as long as they continued to telegraph their moves like this then Evelyn would never be defeated by them.

Gunning her thrusting at the last second Evelyn climbed just enough for the Strike to pass underneath her before taking her spear and thrusting right into one of the thrusters of the Strike's backpack.

While its main body was protected by phase shift armor making it impervious to most physical trauma the same could be said for its packs which she confirmed when she destroyed the Strike's beam rifle.

As a result the thruster which Evelyn stabbed immediately blew out throwing the Strike off balance and leaving it flying through the empty void of space uncontrollably until the pilot disengaged the thrusters.

With the Strike out of commission Evelyn turned her attention to the Archangel and considered trying to engage but decided against since all of her grenades and missiles were expended meaning the only weapon she currently had was her spear and that had to have suffered some considering wear and tear consider its head had been at the center of multiple explosions any time she used it to take out an armament.

Looking over in the direction that Jacob was facing off against the mysterious mobile suit and her skin turned pale.

Both Jacab's CGUE and the Aegis were both rendered inoperable with a high level of damage with the mysterious mobile suit ready to finish off Jacob before a surprise interruption came in the form of the Archangel calling out over the radio on all channels.

XXXXX

Heero weaved out of the way of a few beams from the Aegis and fired off his shoulder guns at the opposing mobile suit.

In response Athrun quickly raises his shield to block the attack which while it didn't do any damaged it carried a surprising amount of force behind it rattling the entire mobile suit and causing him the grunt.

Just what was this mysterious mobile suit, where did it even come from? ZAFT intel never said anything about it when he and the others involved in the attack on Heliopolis were made aware of the project that resulted in the construction of the five prototypes.

During the attack itself Athrun nor anyone else there saw anything to even hint that a sixth unit even existed.

Had the earth forces managed to hide it from ZAFT, or had the enemy made it after what happened on Heliopolis? No the latter couldn't be possible, too little time had passed and he seriously doubted they had the means to realistically construct an entirely new mobile suit right there inside the Archangel itself, but the former just didn't seem any more plausible. After all they had sources on the inside which was how they became aware of the five prototypes to begin with so it just didn't feel like it was possible to hide this one anywhere on Heliopolis.

Whatever the case it was an enemy machine that needed to be destroyed before it could do any more damage than it already has.

It was rather horrifying when it shot down every Ginn the Vesalius and Valerient had saved for the Ginn Assault in such a shot time span. Hence why Athrun felt he had to prioritize the destruction of this mobile suit over persuading his best friend.

Unfortunately that task was really proving easier said than done as Heero took aim at him and fired his beam rifle forcing Athrun to take evasive action and avoid the blast by mere inches.

Jacob meanwhile opened fired upon the Wing Zero with his rifle but his efforts were for naught as Heero simply straged to the side whilst turning around and firing upom Jocab himself forcing the CGUE pilot to pull back.

Athrun tried to shoot Heero from behind but all of his shots were swiftly dodged by Heero but rather than immediately turn his attention back to Athrun he fired another round of bullets from his shoulder guns which Jacob responded in kind to after avoiding.

Once more Jacob aimed his attack at one of Heero's shoulder guns which the gundam moved to save with his shield whilst his narrowed.

It seemed that while one opponent had a better mobile suit the other had a far better understanding to go about fighting Heero, Jacob wasn't merely shouting at him in general but rather aiming for any keyspots he could exploit to weaken Heero's fighting strength, at least whenever the chance presented itself.

Namely his armaments. As Heero was about to return fire Athrun sent a few more beams his way which he had to avoid.

Deciding he needed a better position, Heero began flying in a wide horizontal arc around the Aegis all the while Athrun fired repeated shot at him until he was no longer in between his two respective opponents.

Now that he longer had to worry about being shot at from behind by which enemy he wouldn't have to divert his attention as much. Taking a quick shot at the Aegis the result was what the gundam pilot had expected as the Athrun pulled to the side in order to dodge the shot but Heero was one step ahead and closed a fair amount of distance between them before spraying Athrun with his shoulder machine guns.

Of course the bullets didn't do any damage to the Aegis itself however what they did do was destroy its beam rifle.

Grunting in frustration Athrun switched the Aegis over to its mobile armor form to use the scylla cannon but once more Heero was quicker on the draw and was ready with his buster rifle causing Athrun's stomach to turn cold.

He couldn't dodge the attack and he highly doubted the Aegis' armor would hold up against it but there was nothing he could realistically do to prevent what was coming.

Miraculously he didn't need to, during the brief altercation between the Aegis and Wing Zero Jacob and flew to right of them at a more elevated position and fired rounds from his rifle, since Heero's shield was mounted on the far side of Wing's left arm it couldn't provide any protection for the rifle.

Heero was forced to climb to avoid the bullets and followed up with a blast from his buster rifle which Jacob dodged.

The CGUE pilot climbed to a higher position and before strafing around Heero whilst raining down a hail of bullets that the perfect soldier was forced to doge before take another shot at Jacob

This time however Jacob was unable to dodge completely and lost one of the legs of his mobile suit. The ZAFT red merely clicked his tongue in frustration as he flew through the void of space whilst hailing the Aegis.

"This is Jacob Quinby, come in Aegis."

"What is it."

"I'll make this quick, I want to act as something of a distraction for this machine while you utilize the opening to take them out."

"Roger." Athrun simply said, he had no reason (or time for that matter) to question the idea.

If this machine was truly like the five Prototypes manufactured on Heliopolis then almost any weapon the CGUE had was usless, the only one that might be able to do any real damage was a bazooka or maybe an ion cannon, neither of which Jacob had meaning he really couldn't do anything to this machine unless it ran out of power.

That meant that Athrun was the only one here that could do anything against this machine since the Aegis was that only mobile suit on its level.

As Jacob fired off a few more rounds from his rifle Heero once again evaded everything meawhile Athrun tried to switch over to his mobile armor mobile so utilze the scylla cannon but the result was another miss as Heero avoided the blast and respnded in kind sending a beam Athrun's taking one of the lower craws or more so to the point one of the Aegis' legs.

Switching back to his mobile suit form Athrun gunned it for the unkown mobile suit whilst igniting the beam saber located in the Aegis' free arm whilst Jacob fired upon Heero in order to create an opening for Athrun to use. Once Heero evaded Jacob's shots he made a beeline for him intend to rend his machine in half.

The gundam pilot was more than ready however as he turned to the Aegis raised his shield to block Athrun's blade before bringing his own beam saber around, Athrun much like Heero mere moments ago brought his shield up to block the attack.

Now with both mobile suits blocking eachother's bladed with their shield Athrun attempted to use this as an opportunity to catch the enemy off guard and activated the beam saber in the Aegis' ramaining leg and brought the appendage up in hopes of sheer through the torso and chest of the unkown mobile suit.

This tactic might have worked on some small off chance but things wouldn't play so conveniently for the bluenette since Heero was well aware of the leg mounted beam sabers within the Aegis' feet thanks to having scene the specs for it in the Archangel's archives.

As the leg came up Heero simply pulled back just out of the blades' range all the while simultaneously bringing his own down and severing the Aegis' other leg at knee joint.

Athrun not wanting to give up took another swing with his arm mounted beam saber which Heero parried with a simple swipe of his shield before using his blade to sever Aegis head.

"I'm not gonna let kill anymore of my commrads!" Jacob suddenly yelled over the comms on an open channel so Heero could hear.

Flying at full throttle towards Wing Zero firing off the last bullets from his rifle which of course Heero pulled out of the way before Jacob flung the empty rifle at which the perfect soldier batted aside with his shield.

The CGUE pilot wasn't done yet. Upon launching a kick towards Wing Zero, Heero shifted his shield to block the attack before pushing Jacob back.

No, it wasn't over yet! Jacob refused to let this machine win and kill more of his countrymen!

As Wing Zero fired its machine guns Jacob circled around it and followed up with shots from his shield vulcan.

He had already lost his fellow Valarient pilots when this enigmatic mobile suit first arrived here, now it's claimed the lives of the Ginn pilots from the Vesalius.

It had nearly taken Archie's life and joined up with very enemy intent and oppressing the people of Plants at best and wiping them at worst.

The Wing Zero climbed avoiding the bullets prompting Jacob to take aim but Heero was one step ahead and already had his buster at the ready before firing an amber colored that engulfed and disintegrated the right arm of Jacob's CGUE.

Meanwhile Athrun wanting to save Jacob's life made a beeline for Heero and swung his saber at him only for Heero to climb over the attack before performing a flipping maneuver and bringing his own emerald blade around in the process savering the Aegis right arm.

With three of limbs and head gone the Aegis was reduced to a state it wasn't able to fight, at least not without the attempt being paramount to suicide. To make matters worst Athrun heard an unwelcome alarm which caused him to glance at the battery meter and see the battery was out of power, within the following moments the crippled Aegis become completely defenseless as its phase shift armor came down and its red coloring was replaced with hues of gray.

Jacob meanwhile acting more on impulse than anything out of a desire to save whomever he could amongst the ZAFT forces fired off his shield vulcan.

For Heero its was just a matter of flying to side to avoid the projectiles before taking aim his buster rifle and firing off a long amber beam that took off the head of Jacob's CGUE along with a moderate portion of its upper chest.

"Not yet!" Jacob yelled as he moved the control sticks with the cockpit only to be hit with a very unpleasant surprise when he found that his CGUE had suffered such a high amount of damage that it was no longer responsive, in other words the suit was for all intents and purposes disabled.

And that meant Jacab quinby was essentially a sitting duck who could only watch as Heero adjusted the aim of his buster rifle to destroy the remains of his CGUE and wait for the end.

Or rather that was the case until an announcement was sent by the Archangel on all channels.

"Attention all ZAFT forces, this is the Archangel of the Earth Alliance forces, currently on board the vessel is the Chairman of the Plants Siegal Clyne's daughter Lacus Clyne."

Upon hearing this anyone who was still able to fight stopped to listen to the rest of the broadcast.

"By chance we stumbled upon a lifepod carrying her and took her on board for humanitarian reasons."

With the cockpit what was left of the Aegis Athrun felt his anger boiled over as he along with the rest of the ZAFT forces received an image confirming what the crew of the Archangel claimed.

"But should you choose to attack this ship we will consider it an abandonment of your duties and handle the situation however we see fit."

---

And now we're at the end. Anyway I hope you all enjoyed this, and for those who have to be wondering why Natarle still used Lacus as a hostage it came down to two reason.

First was from a writing perspective, the long and short of is basically it served as necessary plot armor for the attacking ZAFT because with Heero there, they would have eventually all been killed hands down, you saw what almost happened to Jacob and Athrun.

And an in lore reason which you'll find out in the next chapter but here's a hint, remember the Montgomery was not blasted to bits by the Vesalius this time, rather its bridge was taken out by Evelyn.